30 April 2016

April
has just rushed by somehow, but I can see that you've been very busy in the kitchen this month. I was delighted to see so many participants to
Eat Your Greens this month. Thank you so much everyone! There
were great spring recipes, soups, baked goods and pestos. I would
very happily eat each and every one of these dishes and was very
impressed by your creativity. So this is the round up post collecting
all the wonderful contributions pretty much in the order of
appearance. Go and visit these lovely blogs to discover more great food. It's Shaheen's turn to host Eat Your Greens again next month, so keep on
posting and sharing with us!

Laura from Touch
Wood blog shared with us a very nice vegan dish Butternut squash spaghetti with kale where the butternut squash has been
spiralised into spaghetti and served with plenty of healthy kale. She
also served toasted bread with avocado on the side. This is just the
type of dish that I like to eat.

Corina
from the Searching for Spice blog made this wonderfulHomemade Ricotta and Pea Tartwith
such vibrant peas. Oh, I love peas and am very impressed that she
made her own ricotta cheese for this tart. This is spring food at its best.

The vibrancy of
peas continue with Kate's recipe from The Veg Space: Peapod & Little Gem Soup. Just look at that colour! She used also the pea pods, which add a lot of
additional flavour and colour, and gem lettuce, leek and spring
onions as additional greens. I can't wait for the pea season to start
here to make these dishes myself.

Johanna from Green
Gourmet Giraffe shared with us a Pumpkin and kale soup with tempeh crumbles. Pumpkin and kale are always a lovely combination and I
really like the addition of smoky tempeh. I could have a bowl of this
right now, as it sounds so very comforting.

Helen from Roast
Chicken and a Country Walk shared with us her Sweet Tooth Salad
containing sweet potatoes as the filling agent and baby spinach as
the greens. I am a big fan of filling salads, where also sweet and
savoury flavours have been combined like here.

Linsy from Home
Cook Food made this very herby Rosemary, Basil, Parsley Pesto.
I love different pesto variations and this one certainly seems to be
full of flavour containing rosemary, basil and parsley. She is right to point out to be careful with the rosemary, as it can easily overpower the other flavours.

My Eat Your Greens
co-host Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen cooked Stir Fried Edamame Beans with Smoked Tofu. Again a lovely smoky dish with smoked
tofu and liquid smoke, just how I like it, and so very vibrant to
look at. Here are plenty of greens in this one: broccoli, peas, soya
beans, broad beans and edamame beans.

29 April 2016

Yesterday I posted the first recipe of
a two-part vegan udon noodle series (if it can be called a series as
a two parter). Have a look at Part 1 here. Today I'm posting a
slightly different recipe containing wide udon noodles and tofu. In
this recipe I used bell peppers, carrots, ginger and chilli and
slightly different sauces than in yesterday’s dish. The vegetables
were also a bit chunkier and with more bite in this one. I enjoyed
both dishes very much and will keep variating these kind of dishes.
Do you have any favourite udon noodle recipes to share?

Ingredients

250 g tofu

Vegetable oil for frying

200 g udon noodles

2 bell peppers

2 large carrots

1 onion

4 garlic cloves

2 cm fresh ginger

1 green chilli

Soy sauce

Toasted sesame oil

Shaoxing rice wine

Miso

Method

Cut the tofu into large chunks, put a
little vegetable oil into a hot pan and fry the tofu pieces until
they are firm and golden brown. Also cook the noodles, cool them and
set to side.

Then cut the bell peppers and carrots
into pieces and slice the onion. Chop the garlic, fresh ginger and
chilli finely.

Fry the bell peppers and carrots
briefly in a hot pan until they get a little bit of brown colour.
Remove them from the pan and start frying the onion.

After the onion is slightly browned and
softened, add the garlic, ginger and chilli to the pan soon followed
by the pre-fried bell peppers and carrots.

Add the soy sauce, toasted sesame oil,
Shaoxing rice wine and miso into the pan, all to taste, but more
seasoning can also be added later if needed.

Then add the tofu and noodles and serve
once the flavours have blended nicely. I try not to cook the dish
together for very long so that the vegetables and noodles still keep
a little bit of bite.

28 April 2016

I'm going to post two vegan tofu udon noodle recipes on two consecutive days, as I think that these dishes are just perfect for weekday dinners. I often have them for dinner and always take them to work for lunch the next day and then they almost taste better. I'm really fond of this kind of stir frys and adore the contrast between the soft wide udon noodles with the firmly fried tofu. Also other noodle types can be used to this, but the wide udon is brilliant in my opinion. You can also use pretty much any vegetable combination, which can be a really good use for example for left-over vegetables. As soon as you have the basic sauces handy, you can make these sort of dishes in no time. In this recipe I used shiitake mushrooms and spinach as vegetables and green nori sprinkle as a special touch.

25 April 2016

New week has
started and new pasta ideas are needed again to get through the week.
Well, this is not really a new idea, as it is essentially pasta with
tomato sauce, but with the addition of fragrant fresh basil and
garlic oil the dish gets a special touch. Also the torn mozzarella is
a nice filling agent and very tasty. The sauce needs slow cooking,
but not much work, so you are free for your other evening chores
while this is cooking. I used fresh pasta from the supermarket, so it
was very quickly cooked.

Ingredients

1 onion

3+1 garlic cloves

Olive oil

300 g baby plum
tomatoes

Tomato purée to
taste

Salt to taste

Ground black
pepper to taste

Fresh basil leaves

125 g mozzarella

Grated vegetarian
pasta cheese

Tagliatelle

Method

Chop the onion and
three garlic cloves finely and start cooking them in olive oil. Once
they have softened, add the chopped tomatoes. Let simmer slowly under
the lid.

Make the basil and
garlic infused olive oil by chopping the basil leaves and garlic very
finely. You can even gring these into a paste, if you like. Then add
them into little olive oil and let infuse in a closed container.

Season the sauce
and cook the pasta. Serve the tagliatelle with the slow-cooked tomato
sauce, torn mozzarella, grated vegetarian pasta cheese and
garlic-basil oil.

24 April 2016

This sort of
chocolate and coffee cake (mokkapalat)
was often served in Finland in my youth. I'm fearing that it's less
popular these days, as I haven't seen it around for a long time. This
is a very easy cake to make, as you may know how bad I am at baking,
so this is a perfect one that even I can manage. I really love
coffee, so its flavour on a chocolate cake is a really nice
combination. For this one I followed a recipe by Valio, but have
translated it to you below. You can find the original recipe here. Most ingredient amounts are in desilitres, which makes the baking even easier, if you happen to own a desilitre measuring cup as is usual in Finnish households.

Ingredients

Cake dough

4 eggs

2 ½ dl sugar

200 g butter

2 dl milk

5 dl wheat flour

½ dl cocoa powder

1 tbsp baking
powder

1 tbsp vanilla
sugar

Topping

75 g butter

¾ dl strong
coffee

4 dl icing sugar

½ dl cocoa powder

2 tsp vanilla
sugar

Decoration

Fruity confetti

Method

Make the cake
dough first. Whisk the eggs and sugar into foamy texture. Melt the
butter and add the cold milk to it. Combine the dry ingredients. Add
the butter and milk mix into the egg and sugar mix and also add the
dry ingredients through a sieve. Mix carefully. Pour the dough onto
baking paper on a baking sheet and bake at 200 C for about 15
minutes.

Make the topping
by melting the butter and adding the coffee to it. Add the other
ingredients through a sieve and mix on the hot hob. Pour the topping
onto the cake while it's still hot (the cake can be either cooled
down or also hot). Put some confetti on the top as decoration and let
cool.

23 April 2016

I haven't made a
vegetarian lasagne for quite a while. There hasn't been a particular
reason why not, but perhaps I've found it a little bit a boring
choice lately. However after I had made this one that contained fried
halloumi and soya mince ragout, I was excited about lasagne again.
Actually it is a very good dish and there were plenty of left overs
for a few lunches. If you have many hungry mouths to feed, such a
lasagne is always a good idea. So below is my recipe from this time.

Ingredients

1 large onion

4 garlic cloves

1 carrot

200 g baby button
cup mushrooms

400 g plum
tomatoes

2 tbsp olive oil

1 cup soya mince

Salt to taste

Ground black
pepper to taste

Handful of fresh
oregano

4-6 tbsp tomato
purée

Smoked paprika to
taste

1 tbsp vegetable
stock powder

250 g halloumi

Vegetable oil for
frying

300 g fresh
lasagne sheets

200 g grated
mozzarella

Method

Chop the onion and
garlic finely. Also slice the carrot and the mushrooms.

Cook the onion and
garlic in olive oil until soft. Add the carrot pieces and after a
while the mushroom slices. Cook a little further before adding the
chopped tomatoes. Let simmer under the lid.

Cook the soya
mince separately in water, drain and add it to the rest of the sauce.
Season the sauce and let simmer until all the flavours have blended
nicely.

In the meanwhile
slice the halloumi and fry the slices in vegetable oil until they are
golden brown on both sides.

Layer the sauce,
halloumi and lasagne sheets in the normal lasagne way into an oven
dish and cover with grated mozzarella.

Bake at 180 C for
about 40 minutes until the pasta sheets are soft and the cheese
topping is golden brown.

21 April 2016

This salad was
just tonight's quick dinner, which I had planned in my head on my way
home from work based on the available ingredients. The slightly
special feature in this dish was the blood orange dressing with its
citrussy zing. The black beans and halloumi were the filling agents
and otherwise I kept the salad simple.

These are the
ingredients for this salad that I will also be enjoying tomorrow as
lunch:

Ingredients

1 can black beans

3 mini gem lettuce

150 g tomatoes

250 g halloumi

Vegetable oil for
frying

Dressing:

1 blood orange

Olive oil to taste

Balsamic vinegar
to taste

Salt to taste

Ground black
pepper to taste

Method

Juice the blood
orange and just add the other ingredients slowly to the dressing and
keep tasting until it's good.

Cut the halloumi
into cubes and fry them in vegetable oil until golden brown. Add them
warm on the top of the salad.

19 April 2016

Fresh flowers and
a green pasta dish in the house! Those things really make me happy. I
might be weird, but that's how it is. I have been using alternative
pastas for a while now and am very fond of them. They just make a
nice change to the ordinary. Now I tried the very green sprouted
spelt spirulina tagliatelle with a light spring pesto made from baby
kale and cashew nuts. Baby kale was a great leaf to use in pesto, the
result was quite nutty. I added some herby breadcrumbs and local
Hampshire mozzarella on the top of the dish and it was very good, I
really enjoyed it. I think that there can't be enough different pasta
ideas, so here comes my recipe.

Ingredients

Pesto

60 g baby kale

2 garlic cloves

50 g cashew nuts

6-8 tbsp olive oil

Pinch of salt

Herby breadcrumbs

1 cup breadcrumbs

10-12 basil leaves

Pinch of salt

Pinch of ground
black pepper

Pinch of vegetable
stock powder

Other ingredients

250 g sprouted
spelt spirulina tagliatelle

125 g mozzarella

Cherry tomatoes

Fresh basil leaves

Method

Purée the pesto
ingredients into a smooth paste and set to side.

Prepare the herby
breadcrums by chopping basil leaves finely and adding them to the
breadcrumbs with the rest of the seasoning.

Tear the
mozzarella and cut the cherry tomatoes in half.

Cook the pasta al
dente and mix some of the pesto into it. There probably will be pesto
left for another dish as well. Or you can always cook more pasta, if
you have more eaters.

Sprinkle the
breadcrumbs and mozzarella on the top and garnish with tomatoes and
basil.

Enjoy!

This
simple pasta recipe is my Eat Your Greenscontribution
for this month, which I'm hosting in April and the challenge is
co-hosted by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen
blog. Share your recipes with green vegetables with us, if you
haven't done so already! We'd love to see your dishes and there's
still time. Here's the April call for entries.

17 April 2016

Savoury porridge is my true weakness. They make such a good breakfast and keep you going
for pretty much all day. Here in England people don't tend to
understand how much better a savoury porridge is, and they keep
adding their sugars and honeys and berries to porridge. Well not me!
I made this pearled spelt oven porridge, which takes a bit of time to
prepare, but the result is totally worth it. It's the perfect weekend
breakfast for me. I normally make this from pearled barley, but now
tried with spelt and it was very good too. Have a look at my easy
recipe!

Ingredients

1 cup pearled
spelt

1 pint milk + some
extra for eating

2 tsp salt

Method

Soak the pearled
spelt in water overnight.

Next morning
pre-heat the oven to 200 C.

Drain the spelt,
put it into an oven dish, season with salt and cover with milk.

Reduce the heat of
the oven to about 180 C after 10-15 minutes when the milk is slowly
simmering.

Bake the porridge
for about one hour until the spelt is cooked and most of the milk is
absorbed.

The porridge will
have a crust made from milk. This can be removed before eating, if
you like, but it's fully edible.

16 April 2016

Here is one final
holiday post just collecting my favourite places and impressions from
Copenhagen. I'm awfully sorry for the delay in posting, I just
couldn't get to writing this before. I'm already missing Copenhagen,
I wonder when I can go back... This time I detected many new places,
got acquainted with a new artist and had wonderful culinary
experiences. I hope you'll enjoy the photos with me, maybe they can
translate some of that wonderful atmosphere here onto the blog.

The trip from
Vaasa via Stockholm to Copenhagen was going well, but it got even
better when they were serving Mikkeller beer on the
Scandinavian Airlines plane from Stockholm to Copenhagen. Mikkeller
brewed this beer especially for SAS and I was so happy that they had
a couple of cans left for us.

The
Mikkeller theme continued once we reached Copenhagen, again we simply
had to visit Mikkellerbars
and their new bottle shop in Torvehallerne food
market several times. We visited also their new bar, the very
friendly Mikropolis.
They had one of the best G&Ts I've ever tasted made with
Mikkeller gin and tonic of the house. The new bottle shop is now at a
more convenient location, as I would want to hang around most of the
time in Torvehallerne anyway. I wrote about this place last year and
it's still one of my absolute favourites. We had Gorm's superior
pizza margherita, baked goods and a few drinks there.

The Circle Bridge designed
by artist Olafur Eliasson is
a new impressive looking bridge in Christianshavn. We always stay in
this area and the bridge wasn't just beautiful to look at, but it
also shortened our walking ways considerably.

We
always climb onto the top of Rundetaarn,
the round tower,to
see great views of Copenhagen and this time was no different.
Rundetaarn also hosts many nice art exhibitions and now they had Sven
Okkels' exhibition Alt
mellem Himmel og Jord malerier
fra 1946 til 2016 on. I just loved his work and bought the exhibition
book to get more acquainted with him.

We
also paid a visit to the Botanic Gardens,
which is a nice place to have a stroll and look at exotic plants.

Then
there's a bunch of random photos of canals, architecture, vegetables
etc. I hope you do enjoy!

Who is The VegHog?

A vegetarian hobby cook and urban gardener born in Finland, currently living in Denmark. I try to develop my cooking skills by making a wide variety of veggie dishes, some of them traditional and some new creations. My favourites include veggie burgers, squashes, organic and local produce, cider, spelt, rye, pizzas, pasta dishes, risottos and sea-buckthorn.
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